Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace REDUX
by SavetheDream
Summary: A complete retelling of the Star Wars Prequels beginning with The Phantom Menace. This is all new film canon. Retcon of all that came before in the Star Wars films. Alternate Universe. I DO NOT OWN MOST OF THESE CHARACTERS AND PLACES AND THEMES. ALL CREDIT TO GEORGE LUCAS. IT'S HIS WORLD, I JUST PLAY IN IT.
1. An Ancient Union

Aristoci trees thrashed in a violent wind on the planet Cothlanu. A vast landscape greener than emeralds and dotted by seas stretched across the world surrounded by five moons. The Sith Lord, Darth Plagueis, hovered above the forest floor. He observed his apprentice, Sheev Palpatine, tear a tiny crack in the soil with his mind. Hands pushed out before him, Palpatine flashed an image of suffering and death to the front of his consciousness ripping sand and rock from the planet's surface, grinding it into dust carried away in the bluster. For hours he had done this, with greater fury and intensity. More and more of the land bent to his will until that tiny crack had become a vast canyon stretching out before them, splitting the forest with a great ragged crater carrying on for miles beyond their view. The young man broke his concentration and his focused rage to see his master float back to the ground, distress written on his long face.

"You appear disturbed, my Master," Palpatine said.

The ancient Lord, Plagueis the Wise as he had become known, waved his apprentice away. "It is nothing, young one. Finish what you have started."

Palpatine glared at the giant gap he had created. With memories of what came before, his face twisted into a mighty scowl. Summoning the wrath of the gods themselves he curled his fingers inward and rose his arms overhead and conjured a wall of salt water towering above them, carried in from a sea miles away. Plagueis grinned at the display of raw power, never threatened by the mammoth mass of seawater, complete faith in the abilities of his student.

The wave flattened the Aristoci forest into a mile wide trench and the rush of gray water conjured a gale strong enough to have swept lesser men from their feet to drown in the depths boiling as they splashed down. Plagueis, the Mune, pressed his knee to the dirt. Salt spray washed up all around. Palpatine's canyon filled with ocean water. It swirled and sloshed and filled the gap to the top. Darth Plagueis was impressed, but Palpatine could see his master in visible pain, overcome by a sudden disease.

Plagueis groaned, but was pleased to see the raging river as it cascaded over rocks and fallen logs at their feet. "You have done it," Darth Plagueis moaned, "you have reshaped the land. Bent this very world to your will. Just as I had foreseen."

"Yes, my master."

"Indeed you are powerful, Sidious."

"Sidious?"

"An architect of space, breaker of water and stone. The Force is strong in you, perhaps stronger than ever," Plagueis said drawing in a weary breath. "Now you are truly a Sith."

Palpatine knelt before his master and bowed his head.

"Rise, Darth Sidious." Plagueis struggled for balance. He coughed. "Take your place in this ancient union." The young one caught his teacher before he could collapse. "By my side."

"Something has stricken you, Master."

"Yes."

"A disturbance, though I cannot feel it."

"It is an illness. Born of this world, I sense it's presence. It has come on fast. I must contemplate its origin. Quickly, we must return to the temple."

Darth Plagueis summoned the last of his strength in rising to his feet. The two Sith walked from the ravaging waters. They passed through the deep jade of the forest to a clearing stamped by a tall fortress. Palpatine, now Sidious, shuddered catching a chill against his skin. A chasm had opened between teacher and student, a gap in the Force Sidious could feel as though a warm body had disappeared from his side. With the flood of a thousand tormented cries Sidious could feel the mighty weakening in his master's powers. The wise Mune's strength leeched from his bones with each passing second and he struggled to reach his bed where he laid down.

"I will fetch you some broth," Sidious said.

"No. The answer has revealed itself to me," Darth Plagueis said, "there is something else I need you to retrieve."

"Name it, my Master."

The Mune ran his hand along his forearm and then he touched the side of his face. "The flesh rots from my body, young one. It will take and take until there is no more of me. This will take years, but already I am in a weakened state."

"Is there a cure?"

"There is. Darth Sidious, I ask this of you. Bring me this cure. An extract of an aged root. Jamturu. You must find it and bring it to me at once. And you must be certain you are not followed."

"Of course," Sidious answered with a solemn nod. "I will not return without this extract, my Master."

"Finding it will prove difficult. It could be in the Ilyarian system. Be cautious of the Jedi, however, Sidious. They continue to search for us, for me, even now after all this time in exile." The simple thought of an entire Republic endlessly searching for him for decades made him weary. Plagueis was overcome with the urge to sleep. He pushed back onto his bed and rested. "Leave me now."

"Yes, Master. The cure shall be yours. You have my word."


	2. Flagged for Inspection

Blasting through space particulate and leaving Cothlanu and her five moons behind, Sidious held firm at his CX shuttle's controls, glaring at the vast cosmos presented to him through a giant window. He tried to turn his thoughts to mapping toward Ilyaria but could not shake a new reality. He was stepping back into the galaxy as someone the Republic had never known. Darth Sidious. The duality now forced upon him caused his mind to race, something which his Master had taught was an ill-advised state.

"The un-focused mind is the defeated mind," Plagueis would say. And Sidious could hear his Master's words echo around the room.

I am Palpatine, the young Sith Lord, thought. Yet I am now also Sidious.

"No," came Plagueis's voice as though he was in the shuttle with him. "You are who you need to be when it serves you best."

This calmed Sidious as he piloted the shuttle clear enough of the Cothlanu system to engage the hyperdrive. To the Republic, the Senate, I shall be Sheev Palpatine, he thought. To the dark forces, the light, the galaxy itself, every world and for any who trespass on our righteous path I am Darth Sidious, a Lord of the Sith.

"Yes," said Darth Plagueis. "You carry with you the fate of a thousand years of prophecy and progress. Carry it well."

With renewed focus, Sidious's lips curled into a satisfied smile. Glancing at his chart glowing on the console he could see the shuttle moving through hyperspace toward Ilyaria. He knew he would be forced to stop at one of two moon outposts guarding the planet first.

No sooner had he disengaged the CX shuttle's hyperdrive then Sidious was hailed by a patrolling Republic Starcutter.

"Decos Moon, 565," said the voice on the other end. "Shuttle pilot, please identify yourself."

Sidious pulled back on the thrust and the shuttle glided slow toward Decos, the smaller of the two moon's hovering over Ilyaria. He kept a watchful eye on the Republic vessel pulling closer toward him.

"Palpatine, Sheev," he answered the patroller. "89536."

"Stand by," replied the voice.

He waited for those aboard the patrol ship to check their records, pushing any extraneous noise from his mind. Sidious folded his hands above the shuttle's controls and watched as Decos grew large enough to fill the window.

"Citizen Palpatine," said the patroller, "I'm afraid we have no record of you in our system. Please check in at the Entry Base at your earliest convenience. Set your course for heading 21-F."

"21-F," Palpatine repeated, "yes, of course."

Fools. He resented their disingenuous friendliness. Their falseness was their weakness.

The Republic Starcutter peeled away and upon doing so, Sidious changed his heading to 25-D taking him to the docking bays off Gung City, the largest settlement on Decos. He had no intention of making a public record of his visit by checking in at Decos Entry Base. Gung City was a densely populated metropolis, an excellent place to blend in and to rent transport to the surface of Ilyaria where Sidious could hire a guide able to take him to the Jamturu extract he sought.

With deft touches on the control, Sidious brought the shuttle to a stop in one of the few docking stalls available. Before disembarking, Sidious pulled his dark cloak on, careful to have the hood hang in such a way to cast a shadow over his face. He was not certain the crimes of his youth had been fully expunged, though he doubted his name would be flagged this far out on the galaxy's edge. Still, his face was probably on a database out there somewhere. He felt it best to remain low key.

The shuttle's door slid open and Sidious stepped onto the concrete plank leading away from his craft down to a wider walkway where cosmic travelers from all over walked to and from their vessels, completely surrounded by glass and the blackness of space. There were few others on the walkway, and as he strode toward the large opening ahead where the glass encasement ended and a vast concrete passenger terminal began, Sidious could hear the echoes of voices from the overhead speakers. Travelers paging other travelers. The excited calls of children as they ran around harried adults trying to corral them. He walked into the massive terminal with high ceilings, overwhelmed by the ocean of beings moving in all directions to make flight connections or to step onto monorail transports or walk into Gung City's cramped downtown.

Sidious curled up his nose watching people embrace one another or engage in certain rituals of ridiculous merriment. He despised displays of outward affection as he despised the Republic and most people within it. Through squinted eyes he condemned all that he saw, a place of decadence and moral ruin. Focusing back on his mission, he continued through the crowded terminal, ignoring the roar of thousands of voices all speaking at once. He deigned not to notice those mortals who brushed against his cloak and paid no mind to any who gave him a second glance. A few minutes later, he had reached a terminal exit. A giant archway that led to a major pedestrian thoroughfare at the base of Gung City skyscrapers, with dozens of souls passing through the arch in both directions. He noted two slovenly guards, unarmed and wearing blue tunics with dark pants and thought nothing of them as he walked beneath the arch.

That's when he felt an assertive hand squeeze his arm. He turned to see one of the guards staring at him. The other guard walked over from her post. The male guard spoke first.

"Excuse me," he said. "I'm afraid you've been flagged for inspection."

"Is that so?"

"Yes." The second guard wrapped her fingers around his other arm. "Come with us, please."

Sidious obliged and walked with the two guards far enough to the side of the archway so as not to be standing in the center of crowd. He could see the guards were leading him toward a steel door in an alcove. Letting out an audible sigh, he walked with the guards until they were in the alcove before planting his feet. The guards looked at the cloaked man and pulled at his arms firmly.

"This will only take a minute," said the female guard. "What are you doing?"

"I'm afraid I won't be going with you in there," Sidious said.

"Say again?"

"I would also suggest you un-hand me at once."

"Sir," the male guard said, smiling in his usual condescending fashion. "You're coming with us."

"No, my child," Sidious said, a wry grin forming across his lips. "You are quite mistaken."

The male guard grabbed Sidious with both hands and attempted to yank the man off balance. Sidious closed his eyes and conjured a tiny flicker, a small yellow flame he pulled into the center of his consciousness. With his jaw falling open slightly, Sidious felt a lick of heat from the flame and the guard's hand bent away from the Sith Lord's arm. As Sidious began to smile, the male guard screamed as his hand bent back farther still until the bones in his wrists gave way and snapped liked brittle wood. The guard watched in horror as fragments of bone splintered outward hitting the wall. Tendons and ligaments exploded into bloody pulp, ribbons that sprayed outward and then fell limp as dead flowers. The man's hand broke clean away from the rest of his arm slapping the cold tile as bird might clipped of its wings. He collapsed to the floor wailing in horrific agony. His co-worker, the female guard, released Sidious's other arm and she immediately went to the floor to help her friend. Sidious opened his eyes and upon doing so caused the young woman to rise from the floor, floating in air. She looked at the man in the dark cloak, too stunned to make a sound. Her eyes pleaded with Sidious to do her no harm. The Sith Lord cackled and with a slight nod he thrust the young woman with frightening speed through to the other end of the alcove, slamming her body against the steel door. One of her legs snapped in half and her head broke open upon impact. She fell to the floor, unconscious, her skull cracked as though it was made of glass. Satisfied, Sidious glanced down at the screaming man clutching his ragged stump, unable to stop the steady stream of blood as it pooled around him with sickening speed. The Sith Lord turned and walked from the alcove and back toward the archway. Another guard in a blue tunic saw the carnage in the small corridor and called to Sidious.

"You there! Hold up!"

The dark lord ignored the man and the guard could sense this figure posed a serious threat. He allowed the cloaked one to walk toward the pedestrian thoroughfare out in Gung City, but he pressed the distress beacon on his radio. A voice answered and the guard, shocked at the injuries caused to his friends, shouted into the mic, "We need help at Exit 51. Please come quick!"

"Help? What kind of help?"

"There's something seriously wrong. Two guards down! Major injuries! There's a man. He's, well... You may want to alert the Jedi."


End file.
